The millennials will know him as Athiya’s Shetty’s granddad (the slightly older as Mana Suniel Shetty’s father), but for old timers, IM Kadri is the maker of some of Mumbai’s best known and celebrated buildings, including Happy Home School for the Blind and the Nehru Centre complex in Worli.

He imagined designs that were ahead of their time. They represented the metaphoric churning of a new nation, says theorist and critic Kaiwan Mehta in a new book that looks at the legacy of the man and his work. The Architecture of IM Kadri looks at a repertoire that embodies the best of modern and traditional. The jaali you see at Crawford Market’s Haj House reflects calligraphic imprint; the continuous façade instead of individual floors emphasising the tall-ness of the built object. Here, he successfully merged the required needs of a centre for pilgrims en route to Haj with the visual demands of urban architecture.

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Q. Why are so many of his prominent constructions centred in Worli?

A. In the 1950s and ’60s, Bombay was growing, and extending towards the suburbs. Worli stood at this meeting point [of the south and north]. Many questioned IM Kadri’s decision to choose Worli to execute his designs but he realised that this was the beginning of a move towards the suburbs.

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